Saturday, December 10, 2011

Centaures is a new comic book from Eric Loutte (Biggles) and Emmanuel Herzet staring the Rafale fighter jet. The 2 Belgian authors had the opportunity to spend 1 week onboard the Charles De Gaulle Aircraft carrier to gather priceless technical informations, feelings and pictures for their work. They also went to the Landivisiau Rafale simulation center for 3 days.

All the technical details have been checked and approved by 2 French Navy Officers, Commander Fabre and Rafale pilot Captain Guillaume Jacob which is a garanty for high realism.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

In early 2011 we published 2 news related to the Brazilian intention to build a new aircraft carrier. Then we hinted that the aircraft carrier design presented by DCNS at Euronaval 2010 was most probably an answer to a Brazilian request rather than to a French one.

2 days ago, French defense journalist Jean Guisnel published an article confirming that Brazil is indeed seeking an industrial partnership in order to build 2 CATOBAR aircraft carriers. Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim would have tackled the subjet when he came to France on October 18 (19 ?). According to Jean Guisnel article, the Brazilian decision would be expected in 12 or 18 months.

This is of course a very important news as the aircraft selected for those carriers will most probably be the same as the FX-2 winner. If so, this is an advantage for the Rafale and the F/A-18E as they both are carrier capable.

On the other hand, It's been one full month since the opening of the bids on November 4 and the Indian Ministry of Defense had stated then that 3 to 4 for weeks would be necessary to assess both offers and select the best one.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wednesday December 7, During an interview on LCP TV , French defense Minister Gerard Longuet stated that the Rafale production will be stopped if the Plane is not exported after the French forces have received all their airframes. The claim was immediatly spread out of context in many French and international media giving the impression that the production was about to be stopped which is obviously not the case as it is expected to run at least until 2018 (as reminded by Longuet) and most probably until 2022-25 at the current pace.

Edit december 8 :
To clarify Gerard Longuet statement, the Ministry of Defense has issued an official note stating :
"If Dassault does not export the Rafale, The production for the French army will not end before 2030. The deliveries will spread long after 2020. In the meantime, the aircraft will get upgrades between 2020 and 2030"